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Daytona 24 Hour 2004

Rolex

01/02/2004

29/01/2004

Qualifying Quotes

Rolex 24 Pole Winner Scott Pruett

On His Qualifying Lap
"First I got to take my hat off to all the Ganassi guys. If you had seen the car the way it got delivered to us back at Christmas, you would have thought we'd be hard-pressed to get turned around here. The Ganassi guys did a great job. I got a fair lap. When you're out there by yourself, in the Daytona Prototypes, it's a lot easier to get a fair lap. Our car had a pretty good balance. It's very difficult trying to get that balance because when you roll off the truck you're focused on how to make the car easier to drive for 24 hours. That's your focus. The set-up we had for our car was kind of a quick balance between trying to go qualify and trying to go race, but you didn't want to do too many big changes to the car. All in all we're pleased. Riley & Scott, this is their first race. Lexus' first race, gave them a pole. Gave Toyota their first pole in (CART) back in 1999. So, it's a great way to start the season."

On Preparing For The Rolex 24 At Daytona:
"Right after this test we had gone to Firebird, which is a track just outside of Phoenix, and they literally put 1,200 to 1,500 miles on the car. That was the biggest question mark. Riley & Scott, they haven't participated in any racing yet so we didn't know what the durability of the car was like. That's just Chip (Ganassi, owner), he's focused on winning and doing whatever it takes. He said 'Let's just go out west, the temperature's going to be hot, we'll get some good running in.' We started at eight in the morning and ran until 10 at night for the two or three days. We're very pleased with the car. Any little thing can happen to you at this race. I've been here when it's been clear sailing, I've been here when just little things put us out."

On Chip Ganassi
"What excited me about the program was the fact that Chip decided to do it. You look at all of those (NEXTEL) Cup teams, which he's got three now - you look at his (Indy Racing League) team, you look at his CART record, won an IRL Championship last year. I forget how many times he won the CART Championship and the Indy 500. His commitment and his focus are singular, 'What do we have to do to go win races?' He puts the right people in place, he gets the right resources in place, and there's a lot of hard work that goes into it. Their commitment is really transformed, I think, in giving us a good race pace for 24 hours. Yeah, it's quick for qualifying, but also I see that we've done a lot of work getting ready for the 24 hours. Both those things together, I think more than anything shows the commitment of Chip Ganassi. You get around him and spend a little time with him you'll see. He thinks racing all the time."

On Racing In The Rolex 24 At Daytona
"I've been here enough times. Max (Papis, teammate) has been here enough times. We're trying to take all that knowledge and experience that he and I have and try and give the team an understanding of what it's like. From a team standpoint, these guys have never done anything like this before. (They're used to) going out two hours, three hours, Cup races, but I don't think they've done anything over probably a four-hour race, maybe a five-hour race. The way you approach this race - you can't go out and run the car (hard) the whole race. I've never seen any team come here and run that hard. It's a matter of pacing yourself, pacing the drivers. Get the drivers all focused together with a singular thought of 'don't take any chances', don't do anything stupid.' I don't care if you're trying to out-deep somebody and they turn into you, it's still your fault. You need to be extraordinarily careful. Especially when you're looking at some of the differential speeds from some of the GT cars to our cars. Some of the lack of experience of some of these drivers makes it where you have to be on your toes all the time. Max and I have been real focused on explaining that to the team."

"Coming from Trans-Am, where I won a championship last year, it's an hour-and-a-half race. You have to make it happen right now, you have to take those chances. The other aspect is the fact that the differential in speeds from front to back is a lot closer than it is here because of the make-up of the cars. Twenty-four hours is a long time. I know that you look at this race and it’s one o'clock in the morning and you think 'Oh geez, I'm just half-way done.' It's the most amazing race I've ever driven. I think this is, by far - comparing it to when I went to the one at the Mall with the Corvette team a couple of years ago - this by far is the most difficult 24-hour race there is in my opinion."

Terry Borcheller, driver of the No. 54 Bell Motorsports Daytona Prototype Pontiac

On The Qualifying Session
"We felt like our qualifying run was really good. We're happy. We're two seconds faster than our practice time. So that's impressive. Like Scott (Pruett) said, the race is long. I echo what he said about scrapping. The car that has no contact and stays out of the pits is going to be the car that wins the race."

On The Competition
"As long as it's guys like this (Scott Pruett and Terry Borcheller) in front of me, I'm alright. Scott was a hero of mine growing up in go-karts. He was the big man on campus. I was a junior actually when he was a senior, so I don't know how old he is. He looks as young as I am. In go-karts when I was a junior, I always looked at him as being the top-dog in karts. To have him near me is a good thing. I wanted the pole as bad as anybody but you can't get them all. We're happy with our run."